Georgia
joins the WTO

Georgia
became the 137th member of the World Trade Organization
today (14 June). WTO Director-General Mike Moore welcomed
the event by saying: I congratulate Georgia on its
swift accession and the comprehensive commitments it has
taken on. This accession is particularly noteworthy given
Georgias remarkable transition to a market economy.
Georgia is the fourth former Soviet republic to join the
WTO and has done so in less than 4 years after applying
for membership.

Georgia applied for WTO membership on 3 July 1996 to
start negotiations with the WTO working party on its
terms of accessions. The negotiations covered all areas
of WTO rules as well as commitments on market access for
both goods and services. The results of these
negotiations were adopted by the WTO General Council on 6
October 1999 and formally accepted by the national
legislature in Tbilisi in May this year.

At the General Council meeting of 6 October 1999, Mr. V.
Lordkipanidze, State Minister of Georgia, said: "We
believe that expansion of the multilateral trading system
will help to stop economic nationalism and protectionism,
give countries a fair foothold on the global trading
market, thus contributing to a stable and continued
economic growth world-wide." He added: "I am
convinced that by assuming their rightful place in the
global trading system, Georgia and other countries in
transition will soon see prosperity and stability
increase along with their new, expanded activity in the
world economic arena."

At the same meeting, Mrs. Anne Anderson (Ireland),
chairperson of Georgia's working party, remarked on
Georgia's speedy accession. She said that the rapid pace
of this accession process testified to the determination
shown by the Georgian authorities to carry through an
impressive reform process sustained by a high degree of
trade liberalisation and full conformity with WTO rules
and disciplines. She pointed out that the fact that
Georgia had been able to conclude accession negotiations
so rapidly and efficiently proved that when supported by
constructive dialogue, intensive preparatory work and
good will, the WTO accession procedures had worked well.

Georgia is the fourth former Soviet republic to become a
member government of the WTO, after the Kyrgyz Republic,
Latvia and Estonia. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Kazakstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine and
Uzbekistan are in the process of negotiating their terms
of entry to the WTO.